Please don't do only do applets. A java -jar MyAwesome16k.jar is my preferred option every time.

Yeh agreed, besides they add a small size overhead compared to just jar. However IMO it is the most painless way for people to test. As simple as just clicking a link and running it while remaining inside your browser, it doesn't get more painless or lazy than that.

Not sure how true that is these days, its probably limited to a handful of people with broken installations or those using some third party plugin. The Oracle plugin has matured a lot in the last few years and the days when applets were highly buggy and broken are long gone (sure there are still some rough edges). The situation is a bit like how the 'Java is too slow' image stayed with Java for so long even once it had reached a point where it wasn't really true anymore.

We're going to figure out some sort of applety thing that will automatically take people's 16k jars and run them as applets - just not applets that are embedded in the browser, necessarily. I've got www.lwjgl16k.org registered and a blank website sorted, just getting it set up with a Wordpress blog to manage the content in the simplest possible manner.

How about you evalutate the standalone jar-size, and demand an applet for presentation?Packaging it as both should be of no hassle for a developer.(Whoever has problems with applets can alternatively download it and type these weired commandline thingies)

Someone "normal" visiting the contest-page with weiredlooking downloadinstructions will simply not testplay the games.People might spend 30Minutes hasseling to get Skyrim installed, but not some random Indygame.

The showcase would get poor public response.It must be as easy as starting a flashgame.

Someone normal, goes to the page and then it asks if they really want to ... What? cancel!.... go do something else.

The definition here of "always works" seems to be closer to "always works for me". For example for the 4k comps there have *always* been a few that just won't work. Period. Typically because the server is not compliant with pack200 applet spec. aka not providing a plain jar when it should do so.

And seriously what is so hard with providing a jar? or a archive?

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.--Albert Einstein

Provision is easy, it's just lazy (ordinary) people can't be bothered to drop said jar into the previously described deployment situation and try it. At least rest assured that I'll be trying anything posted. When I get the website sorted I'll have a bash at deploying them all in applet form, or something.

Quick related q. - the LWJGL applet system - does it / should it share LWJGL jars with all applets? As in, LWJGL is like an "official" Java extension as it were.

Its possible to share the jars however they're pretty small by today's standards (lwjgl.jar.pack.lzma + lwjgl_util.jar.pack.lzma + windows_natives.jar.lzma = 900kb) on average about a 5 second download and they're only downloaded the first time thereafter the cached versions are used. Many web pages are larger than that these days e.g. the BBC front page is 999kb, the YouTube front page is 956kb, Twitter page is 1.76mb, etc.

Also by using the officially signed LWJGL jars any user trying the games will only ever sees a security dialog once for all LWJGL Applets and JWS Apps (they might have even accepted it in the past). The method described here is probably the easiest way to go and a bit like using an extension.

java-gaming.org is not responsible for the content posted by its members, including references to external websites,
and other references that may or may not have a relation with our primarily
gaming and game production oriented community.
inquiries and complaints can be sent via email to the info‑account of the
company managing the website of java‑gaming.org